Nowadays, composite materials and complex plastics are materials with a high added value. However, these materials are still a long way from joining the circular economy. The lack of reprocessability and the difficulty to repair and recycle composite materials significantly increases their cost, while also causing severe environmental problems.
LINE 1: RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES
This line covers technologies that facilitate classification and automatic separation of flows of plastics into fractions with the appropriate specificity and purity and the mechanical, chemical and biological recycling operations.
The lines of work that have been set out are:
L1.1. Waste collection and separation processing technology.
L1.2. Mechanical recycling technology for thermoset waste.
L1.3. Chemical recycling technology for thermoset cured glass and carbon waste.
L1.4. Chemical and mechanical recycling technology for complex thermoplastic waste.
Chemical and thermo-mechanical rubber recycling:
L1.5. Chemical recycling technology for residual thermoplastic matrices with low recovery for applications in thermoplastic composites.
L1.6. Biological recycling technology for complex plastics with PET, PE and PUR.
L1.7. Thermomechanical recycling technology for thermoplastic waste.
PET waste thermo-mechanical recycling:
Composite fibers from complex plastic waste:
Film thermo-mechanical recycling
Obtaining film:
3D printing filaments:
L1.8 Thermal recycling technology for cured waste.
LINE 2. RECOVERY INTO INTERMEDIATE PRODUCTS
The processed waste obtained in LINE 1 areas must be treated to be used in reprocessable intermediate products that allow circularity.
L2.1. Obtaining oils, monomers, prepolymers and additives from the products derived from chemical recycling of waste by improving the purification processes to develop green polymers; improving the quality of pyrolysis oils and repolymerisation to obtain intermediate substances for the chemical industry.
L2.2. Addition of recovered fibres in reinforcements and textiles, developing technology to obtain mats, filaments, tapes and non-woven fabrics by applying sizing and stiffening to ease its incorporation into manufacturing.
L2.3.Recovery through compounding technology based on extrusion and reactive functionalisation to modify the process so that it eases dispensing and feeding of recycled material with different particle shapes.
Thermoplastic compounding
L2.4. Recovery into organosheets, unidirectional tapes and 3D printing filaments, involving fluidised bed pultrusion and new organosheet manufacturing technologies.
2.85 mm 3D printing filament.
L2.5. Development of filling and strengthening preforms for transformation processes such as RTM, compression and over-injection using low pressure moulding and additive manufacturing.
Thermoplastic compound preform.
L2.6. Development of BMC/SMC from pre-impregnated waste and recovered glass and carbon reinforcements.
Pre-peg lamination.
Obtaining BMC .
LINE 3. POST-PROCESSING OF INTERMEDIATE PRODUCTS
L3.1. Optimisation of the product characterisation, modelling and design, developing methods applicable to recycled materials that result in a reliable predictive model for properties.
Mechanical characterisation.
L3.2. Enhanced processing of recycled materials to obtain demonstrators for end products applied to different sectors: automotive, transport, construction, etc.
Parts obtained by compression based on recycled carbon.
L3.3. Life cycle analysis and eco-design, broadening the information required from the recycling processes to be able to perform LCA.
